Jeffrey Thomson

NASA

Below lights that constantly change color/ in improvised tracks for the dance/ and other
permitted amenities/ the kids from the new litter dance/ the way kids danced before/ the
beats are relics/ the music is distinct and the clothes and the hair are distinct too/ and
there are tins of beer squashed against the ground/ and the smell of rare cigarettes/ and in
the village blocks police cars pass sounding their sirens and smacking their gum/ the
beats will soon be relics/ the way kids danced before/ the kids from the new litter dance /
in improvised tracks for the dance/ and other permitted amenities/ below lights that are
constantly changing color—suddenly a scuffle and the music stops/ and the bodies stop/
and the poem/

Juan Carlos Flores, translated by Marta Hernández Salván and Jeffrey Thomson and read by Jeffrey Thomson.
NASA is from Thomsan's forthcoming collection Many Ways to Dig a Tunnel, translated from the Spanish of Juan Carlos Flores.